THE SHEEP INDUSTRY

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14767, 5 October 1921, Page 5

THE SHEEP INDUSTRY

IN A PERILOUS CONDITION EXORBITANT MIDDLE CHARGES. FARMERS UNABLE TO BEAR THEM. By Telegraph.—Special to Times. WELLINGTON, Wednesday. When the debate on the Address-in-Reply was resumed, the problems that face sheepfarmcrs were discussed briefly in the House of Representatives by Mr McLcod (Wairarapa). who suggested that the official statistics were to some extent misleading. The estimates of export value' tiad been made on a wrong basis. The export value of wether mutton, for example, was represented in the return as s|d per lb, but farmers were selling 601 b wethers, carrying 91b, 101 b, and 111 b of wool, for from 15s to lGs. The sheepfarming industry was in a perilous condition at the present time, and the sole thing that could save the industry from very serious trouble and many bankruptcies was a reduction in the enormously-In-creased charges that had been imposed upon meat between the freezing works and the London market. New Zealand meat was not bringing unduly low prices on the London market, but the various charges had been increased to such an extent that the industry could not carry them.